These were the words Veronica Washington had hoped to hear for the past three years: Not guilty.

Her son, Andre Washington, 31, and his half-brother, Andre Marshall, 29, were acquitted Friday evening by a Jefferson Parish jury on charges of attempted second-degree murder and for being felons in possession of firearms.

Marshall remains in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna, booked for fighting with the alleged victim in the attempted murder case after deputies put the two men on the same tier, Veronica Washington said.

Washington and Marshall were cleared in an armed assault on a Shrewsberry apartment on Feb. 25, 2007, that left their brother dead and three men wounded. Joseph Delay, who lived in an apartment at Lausat and Katlan streets, exchanged insults with Marshall. Holding an AK-47 assault rifle, Delay threatened "to light it up," according to trial testimony.

A group of men returned with AK-47s, a shotgun and an arsenal of semiautomatic pistols and opened fire, a prosecutor said. Delay and two other men were wounded. Washington's brother Frederick Washington, 27, was killed during the shooting, in which prosecutors say he participated. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office gathered 75 bullet casings and shotgun shells from the scene, more than half of which were fired from two assault rifles.

"This isn't military style, this is gangland style," Assistant District Attorney Michael Smith said. "They're not just killers, they're terrorists. They terrorized a residential neighborhood."

Washington and Marshall also were charged with second-degree murder for Frederick Washington's death, but without explanation, prosecutors dismissed that charge last week. They likely won't be tried for attempting to kill two other men who were wounded with Delay.

Their attorneys, Jessica Lacambre and Mark Nolting, argued their clients were misidentified and were prosecuted entirely upon the testimony of two witnesses who contradicted each other's claims.

"If you believe one, you can't believe the other," Nolting said, adding that the case violated Washington's and Marshall's right to confront their accuser.

Delay, 38, refused to testify. He is jailed on two charges of receiving stolen property. He has convictions in New Orleans, including one for forcible rape.

The jury deliberated about three hours before acquitting Washington and Marshall of attempting to kill Delay. The case has netted three convictions. Last year, Clifford Turner pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Frederick Washington's death and attempted-murder charges for his role in the incident. He received a 40-year sentence.

Three years ago, Robert Moran, 21, and his sister Shantrell Moran, 20, pleaded guilty to threatening their neighbors who had testified before the grand jury that handed down indictments in the case. Shantrell Moran, who was dating Andre Marshall, threatened to cut a witness with a broken bottle, and Robert Moran beat up the cousin of that witness, according to the Sheriff's Office. They received two years of probation, court records show.